Although Benedict Read gives the date of this work as 1876, the year incised on it is 1875, and one dependable source says that it was exhibited at the Royal Academy as early as 1869 (see Read 117 and "Item Record 12850"; but the latter date seems very unlikely). Livingstone holds out a Bible in one hand, and has a kind of axe in the other (not a walking stick, as at first appears). At his belt are a compass and pistol. A lion-skin with a very realistic head is draped on a tropical tree-trunk beside him, suggesting the perils of his expeditions. The monument stands in a very prominent position close to the Scott Monument, and against the backdrop of the gardens and the Mound. The blue flag seen faintly just behind the lion's mane in the detail here is the St Andrew's flag on the former Bank of Scotland. [continued below]

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As testimony to the great explorer's fame, the monument has only the single word "Livingstone" inscribed on the pedestal. Cf. John Mossman's somewhat less dynamic but perhaps more natural sculpture of Livingstone in Cathedral Square, Glasgow.